Breaking The Huddle
The Integration Of College Football In The South During The Civil Rights Movement
2008-12-16
By DeAngelo Starnes

“Why is it you don’t like me when you don’t even know me?” Bubba Smith lamented about being denied the opportunity to play for the University of Texas football team.  It’s a rhetorical question that gets to the utter nonsense of bigotry and segregation.  Smith, who was from Beaumont, Texas, went on to become one of college football’s greatest defensive players at Michigan State.  However, the segregation rampant in southern college football denied him his dream of playing for the Longhorns. 

As we shift into the college bowl season, HBO produces and airs a very good documentary on the integration of college football in the South.  The documentary focuses on the noble efforts of college football coaches to recruit Black players onto all-white teams and the heroic efforts of the players who broke that color line.  It’s an especially timely-aired documentary given that one of the teams playing for the national championship, Florida, hails from one of those conferences, the Southeastern Conference.

The special covers the period between 1956 and 1970.  It notes that, at the same time African Americans struggled for equality in society as a whole, their athletes struggled to display their superiority on the field.  And maybe that was the point for segregation.  Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, colleges from Maryland to Texas arrogantly defied the Court’s directive to allow Blacks into their schools.  Actually, segregation in colleges had been outlawed prior to the Brown ruling.  But that didn’t stop Governors Ross Barnett and George Wallace from keeping their campuses lily white.  And not just the campuses but the football stadiums.  Get this: South Carolina’s Clemson had “Nigger Hill” outside of its stadium where Black fans sat on a red clay incline in order to watch Clemson football.

Generally, when you read about heroes from the Civil Rights Movement, you hear the names King, X, Evers, Parks, Rustin, Powell, Carmichael, Hamer, Young, and Jackson.  I believe James Meredith deserves a plaque alongside these people for what he endured to integrate the University of Mississippi.  What is little known but is revealed in the documentary is the Jackie Robinson-esque ordeals Black ball-players endured to integrate the Atlantic Coast, Southeastern, and Southwestern Conferences.  Recruited by renowned ESPN college football commentator Lee Corso, Darryl Hill became the ACC’s first Black player at the University of Maryland.  Hill set an ACC record of ten receptions in a game after being inspired by the fans sitting on the notorious Nigger Hill.  At Dallas’ Southern Methodist University, Jerry LeVias integrated the Southwestern Conference and helped lead the school to an SWC title.

Many of the country’s best football recruits hail from the South, given the roots slavery wrought.  As a result, historically Black colleges benefited from the segregation.  Schools such as Morgan State and Grambling enjoyed their heydays during this period in time.  HBCUs developed players at positions that usually were thought to be reserved for white ballplayers: quarterback and middle linebacker.  Hall of Famer Willie Lanier makes an appearance to discuss this point. 

Ironically, the whitest team, Alabama, dominated college football at this time.  There seems to be a conflicting portrait of Bear Bryant about this.  On one hand, there are reports that Bryant wanted to recruit Black ball-players but felt his hands were tied due to the alumni desirous of an all-white team.  On the other, there is footage of Bryant stating that his teams were lily white because he couldn’t find a good enough Black ball-player. Actions speak louder than words.  Bryant’s popularity couldn’t have been higher during that time.  He could have taken the stand that SMU’s Hayden Fry and Maryland’s Lee Corso took to integrate their conferences.  Bryant didn’t have the necessary moral fortitude.

His comeuppance came when his team played USC.  Sam “Bam” Cunningham laid a can of whup ass on the hallowed Alabama football team.  And I think it was that game along with white folks seeing the dominance of players like the aforementioned LeVias and Hill when white boosters said, “Get us some fast niggers.”  Racist, still?  Sure.  Reality, yes.  The most important point is that Black ball-players could play for their home teams.  And while I might want to see HBCUs being more competitive, the freedom to attend your school of choice is infinitely more important.  That’s the point of the documentary.

Breaking Through The Huddle airs on HBO December 16. 

DeAngelo Starnes is a writer and attorney in Denver, Colorado. He is a regular contributor to EbonyJet.com.